Store furniture



April 21, 1925.

H. P. HOWARD STORE FURNITURE Original FiIed Nov. 50. 1921 Patented Apr. 21, 1925.

UN IT E D STAT PATENT 1 GF F l C E IIAs'rm'e r. HOWARDROF EMPHrS, TENNESSEE, AssIGNoE E ONE-HALF rro ALBERT s. G0 0K,' .TR., 0E MEMPHIS, aENnEssEE; NORA L. HOWARD ADMINISTEATRIX or SAID HASTING P. HOWARD, DECEASED.

s'roRE FURNITURE.

Original application filedNoveinber 30, 1921, Serial No; 518,904. Divided and this application filed April T0 at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HASTING P. Ho'wAnD,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Memphis, in the county of Shelby and State of Tennessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Store Furniture, of

which the following is a specification.

This application is a division of: an application filed-by me November 80, 1921, Serial 1 No. 518,904.

My present invention. relates to store furniture intended more particularly for use in self-serving stores, the object being to provide furniture which may be readily moved from the building in case of fire or other emergency, or may be readily shifted within the building so that when the stock of articles displayed at any one point isexhausted a fresh supply may be provided Without loss of time. The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will be hereinafter fully set forth.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a perspective view of a store room having my improved furniture therein;

Fig. 2 is a detail perspective view showing the parts whereby the show cases are normally anchored;

Fig. 3 is a detail section.

In the drawings, the reference numeral 1 indicates the front wall of a store' room which front wall may be of' any desired architectural structure. As shown more particularly in Fig. 1, the building is pro vided with an entrance 8 and within the store room, spaced from the front wall thereof, is a transverse partition a. At the center of the partition 4 is a desk or counter 5 which constitutes a settlement station where customers may pay a cashier for their selections, the desk or counter beingentered through a gate 6 which may be of any preferred form. At each side of the desk is a turnstile 7 which will permit egress of customers, and adjacent one sidewall of'the store room an entrance 8 is provided, preferably in the form of a vestibule door disposed between the adjacent exit turstile 7 and the side wall of the room. At the opposite end of the partition 4, a turnstile 9 is provided to constitute an additional earit and disposed parallel with the adjacent side Serial No. 553,696.

wallof the room is a longitudinal partition or rail 10 which, with the. side wall of the room, defines a hall or passageway leading to-the said turnstile 9. One or more gates 11 may be provided in the partition to facilitate exit from the store room inthe event of fire or other emergency. Disposed transversely of the store room adjacent but in rear of the cashiers desk 5 is a basket rack 12 which includesa shelf 13 inclined downwardly toward the entrance 8 so that baskets placed upon the said shelf will gravitate toward the entrance aisle where they'may be readily reached by entering customers. v

The merchandise displayed for sale is arranged upon shelves 45 carried by cases so which are mounted upon rollers 47 so that they may be easily shifted as may be desired, suitable cards, tags or labels being provided upon each shelf to announce the prices of the displayed articles. The rollers 47 are low but have wide tread surfaces so that they will support the several show cases or shelves in a stable manner. To add to the stability of the display, each show case or set of shelves is equipped near its bottom with swinging hooksAtS adapted to engage eyes 4E9 on the-floor of the store room and thereby prevent accidental shifting of the furniture. The basket rack 12 is also mounted upon casters or rollers so that it may be readily set at any desired distance from the cashiers desk and the space between the basket rack and the said desk will form a cross aisle through which customers cases 46 extending from the end of the partition 10 parallel with the adjacent side wall of the store room to a point near the said desk'50. A cage'51 may be provided around the desk 50 to prevent interference with the work of the attendant and a gate 52 is provided between the desk and the adjacent show case 16 to cut off or retard the passage of customers past said desk. A

guard 53 is also provided parallel with the desk and extending rearwardly from the gate 52 so that customers will be obliged to pass close to the desk 50 when seeking to utilize the exit 59-.

Reserve stock may be kept in a stock room in rear of the store room, or upon a plurality of trucks 61 which may be provided in the space between the show cases 46 and the rear wall of the store room to carry reserve stock or display goods which are ordinarily displayed in baskets or similar containers. These trucks may be readily moved about from point to point s0 that as stock upon the shelves is depleted, fresh stock may be added thereto. It will be read ily noted that the show cases 46 are arranged in parallel rows extending longitudinally of the store room so that aisles will be provided through which customers may circulate and obtain a view of all the merchandise offered for their selection,

Near the tops of the show cases, I secure track rails 56 upon which run rollers mounted at the upper ends of standards 58 rising from rolling stepped platforms 59 which enable children and persons of low stature to reach articles on the upper shelves.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying draw; ings, it will be seen that I have provided a store in which the overhead expense will be very materially reduced by making unnecessary the employment of a large number of clerks and salesmen inasmuch as the customers may serve themselves. In the practice of my invention, congestion wlthin the store is reduced to a minimum inasmuch as I provide two exits at the main settlement station and also provide an auxiliary settlement station at the rear of the store room from which a separate passage leads to the main entrance and exit. It is to be noted especially that the show cases or shelves are all portable or mounted on rollers so that the merchandise to be displayed may be arranged in units and any one unit may be changed without requiring a shifting of other units and as the stock in one unit is depleted by selections therefrom, a complete filled unit may be substituted therefor by merely removing the depleted unit and rolling into its place a previously prepared full unit.

The portability of my cabinets or display units is further advantageous in that it permits the cabinets to be arranged within the salesroom as the shape or size of the room or other circumstances may suggest or require. I-Ieretofore, so far as I am aware, the merchandise has always been displayed upon shelves or furniture which has been permanently secured in place and, therefore, the arrangement of the store furniture always followed a fixed design. IVith my portable units, however, the display may be arranged to the best advantage under any given circumstancesv and may be varied from time to time, if so desired, so as to lend novelty to the store arrangements and increase the attractiveness of the display.

Moreover, in the event of fire or other panic-creating emergency the plurality of exits provided in the partition 4: will permit the customers and attendants to very quickly leave the store room and also will permit the shelves or show cases to be readily rolled out of the building. To facilitate this removal of the cases, the hooks 48 are all arranged with their bills presented toward the rear of the building so that it will not be necessary to separately disengage the hooks from the staples or eyes 49, as upon pushing the cases toward the front, the ends of the hooks will pass at once from the eyes.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

Furniture for a store room having a general entrance, comprising a transverse partition across the room forming a lobby near said general entrance, a plurality of spaced ingress and egress openings in said partition, an emergency gate in said partition leading to said lobby, a main settlement counter between two of said openings, cabinets arranged in a plurality of rows from said transverse partition and said counter in the direction of the rear wall of the store room, the rear ends of said rows stopping short of said wall a uniform distance to provide a stock department, said, rows forming aisles between them all opening into said stock department, a transverse passage being arranged between said settle ment counter and the ends of adjacent rows; one of said rows being spaced from the adjacent side wall of the store room to provide a corridor, the front end of the corridor communicating with another of said openings, an auxiliary settlement counter at the rear end of the corridor, a cage around said auxiliary settlement counter, a gate connecting said stock department with said corridor, and a guard adjacent said auxiliary settlement counter adapted to compel cus tomers to pass close to the said auxiliary settlement counter before entering the corridor through said gate.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

HASTING P. IIOIVARD. [n s] llO 

